The brave new world of Babel
Heaven on the way to Hell - or Hell on the way to Heaven?
We are returning to Babel! New technology is the villain.
The ancient city of Babel was an attempt to build a staircase to heaven. It failed because the language the builders used became confused. A building foundation specialist couldn’t communicate with a wall specialist any more...
The same is happening today. Technology is constantly improving and updating. If I constantly use a computer program, new and clever improvements appear, and at present, like other people, I can just keep up, but must constantly re-learn. If I have not used an important program for a year the odds are that I can no longer find features which I previously used and need; I have to relearn, though I may even have mastered the earlier version! I have seen advanced, constant and skilled users of some graphics programs completely thrown and frustrated by changes over a mere couple of months.
Other types of technology can be worse. When TV’s became “smart” they started accessing the internet, and even the terms and words changed – the language changed. There were brand-new concepts, operating systems, brand-names and technical terms.
Are we trying to reach some sort of technological Heaven, or are we entering some sort of race to be enslaved. Advances in technology are wonderful, and powerful forces for good in the earth but why the frenetic race to be the first to have the newest and the latest and the best. In the end the tower of Babel was never completed. The striving "to make a name for ourselves" sabotaged the project and left the builders unable to understand each other. Maybe the current race to build a tower to technological heaven will be sabotaged by confusion.